Love Literary Style

Book 2 in the Girl Meets Class series
By Karin Gillespie
Narrated by Cris Dukehart
Published By Tantor Media
Publication date Nov 22, 2016
Running time 8 hrs

I voluntarily reviewed a publisher-provided, review copy of this book. No remuneration was exchanged and all opinions presented herein are my own except as noted.

Novelist Aaron Mite meets Laurie Lee at a writers’ colony and mistakenly believes her to be a renowned writer of important fiction. When he discovers she’s a self-published romance author, he’s already fallen in love with her.

Aaron thinks genre fiction is an affront to the fiction-writing craft. He often quotes the essayist Arthur Krystal, who says literary fiction “melts the frozen sea inside of us.” Ironically Aaron doesn’t seem to realize that he’s emotionally frozen. The vivacious Laurie, lover of flamingo-patterned attire and all things hot pink, is the one person who might be capable of melting him.

Chris Dukeheart has narrated four books by Sawyer Bennet which I’ve reviewed. Her voice has a sparkly vulnerability particularly suited to the voicing of good-hearted, naive young women.

I agree with many reviewers who found that LOVE LITERARY STYLE seemed like it would be a fluffy contemporary romance but turned out to have much, much deeper thematic content regarding the differences between genre fiction and literary fiction; as well as men having issues with spousal success over their own. The book is more than it appears.

This story looks at the snobbery around Lit Fic versus Genre Fic in a way that makes the divide accessible.

At first listening to the book, I was a little bored and thought it was going to be a trifle. But, I was happily surprised to find more of a story with less in the may of meaningless sex. Of course, I thought I was getting a steamy tale but, while the couple does get hot they mostly do so off the page. It is romantic to a point, but not steamy.

There are some other good themes around young relationships, honest relationships and familial relationships. Sometimes it seems as if the mix is poking fun at romantic relationships, as well as characters who want to write, and how those who write lit fic are doing so in the same way someone buys a certain brand because we think it is better than the other brand.

And, writing, story and emotion are explored: Aaron’s emotional and parental issues and his submissive nature with a particular girlfriend, Laurie Lee’s lack of education and willingness to learn and improve her writing. I have to say I look at adverbs in a whole new light, and notice when they are OVERLY utilised.

Parental influence, expectations from childhood and how the people we love can hold us back with itention or just by loving the person we were. There are four serious losses that affect the characters. I absolutely hated one and found its presentation unrealistic, and mean. And, there are several more than a few ways that what happens feels contrived.

This feels a little like a love triangle between THE ROSIE PROJECT, chick lit, and an actual romance novel.

This ended up being satisfying, surprising and definitely worth my time.

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One Comment

Sophia RoseFebruary 7, 2017 @ 5:11 PM

Fun! Love it when a book surprises me in a good way. The elements do seem like they make one ponder things as the story progresses and it’s neat that there is a good development of the characters and romance while they sort out the ‘vs.’ stuff.

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